1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for generating a surface mesh surrounding particles, and more particularly, to a system and method for generating a surface mesh surrounding particles, which can visualize particle simulation results faster and more effectively in basic science and engineering.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method for rendering particles into three-dimensional (3D) spheres and visualizing the results has been proposed. This method has an advantage in that it is very simple and can roughly estimate the results rapidly. However, this method is unsuitable for computer graphics field requiring more accurate surface information. Specifically, when spherical surfaces overlap each other, a mesh of the inside of the spheres is unnecessarily generated. Thus, an amount of data unnecessarily increases.
In recent years, methods for finding a surface mesh corresponding to a fluid surface in a fluid simulation using particles have been studied. Desbrun adopted a method of calculating an equi-density surface using density values of fluid particles. However, finding a reference value for calculation of the equi-density surface is very ambiguous. In some cases, important portions of the fine fluid surface disappear. Thus, it often seems that viscosity of the fluid is large.
According to another method proposed by Mueller et. al, a color field is formed by assigning a value of 1 to a fluid particle and a value of 0 to the others, and a fluid surface is calculated using a method of calculating an equi-surface with respect to a specific value. Also, a surface tension in a specific location is calculated. Compared with the Desbrun's method, the Mueller's method has an advantage in that it usable in the general particles because a fluid density is not used, but it also has a disadvantage of ambiguity and blurring.